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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Today is a horribly somber day for me. Just yesterday, I found myself reading a post by Bella of CitizenRosebud about how life is short, how we often take it for granted until death smacks us directly in the face.

I commented back to her telling her that oftentimes we get so caught up into our own 'mess' that we forget how important little things like phone calls and visits are. We don't say I love you enough, we don't keep in contact enough, we don't understand how valuable life truly is until we are stricken with grief.

Just last week, an old high school classmate of mine was taken away all too soon. Tons of people have been dying in area disasters. And the gas prices make me cry each time they inch closer to $4.

Over the past couple of days (and weeks) there has been something very weird going on in the world...something very eerie...something...different.

Yesterday, I woke up and I felt so out of sorts. As if something were out of place. The weather was gorgeous, a normal May day if you will. All throughout the day though, something was nagging at me. I felt as if I was living outside of my own body.

No sooner than I had gotten off of work and pulled in my driveway, the sky had turned pitch black. Then all of a sudden...heavy winds, huge balls of hail, and massive rain. Now I've been living in the Hampton Roads area for the majority of my life and I've never seen anything quite like this. Never have I witnessed a storm that made me feel this way. The feeling was indescribable. Maybe because this storm was so unexpected. Ya know usually you hear weather reports or even warnings about storms, tornado's, or hurricanes...but I heard absolutely NOTHING this time and I could feel that something bad was bound to happen within its aftermath.

When I walked outside, I saw a huge trampoline that was blown into the middle of the street directly in front of my house. Whole trees were broken in half. Power lines had exploded and traffic lights were totally out of order. Imagine the chaos that caused in an area where people already drive as if they got their licence out of the Lucky Charms box. Seriously, I was a hair's length away from being a witness (if not a victim) in a terribly fatal accident.

My heart hurt.

At about 7 ish I received a phone call from my BF. The usually preliminary conversation-how was your day, what are we doing tonight, yadda yadda yadda-until he told me he would call me back. He's told me that he would call me back plenty of times before but this time the tone of his voice sent a chill through my body.

My phone rang approximately 10 minutes later..."Baby," he cried frantically. He proceeded to ask me if I knew 'so and so'. Usually my answer is no because he has a habit of asking me about the most random people in the world. On this occasion though my answer was yes. I did know 'so and so'. "He was killed during the storm". I couldn't speak. Our mutual friend, his fraternity brother had been pinned between two buildings on his job site when the heavy winds of the storm pushed a portal crane into one of the buildings.

I felt defeated.

I'm still confused. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. I'm still hoping that I'm dreaming, hoping that the news anchors will say that they made a mistake and the person who was killed wasn't our friend.

Walter Amos, 30 years old.
He was one of those guys that everyone loved. So very outspoken, with such a viral personality. Always smiling, joking, and hopping around with his fraternity brothers with his shirt off. Aggressive by nature but wouldn't hurt a fly. He touched the hearts of so many. And I know that you're not supposed to question God but I find myself wanting to ask why. Why take away such a good person and leave the criminals here to tear our world apart?

I'm angry and not dealing with this very well at all because I can't understand it.

Have any of you ever felt this way before?

How do you deal with things that you don't understand?

People have spoken about a rapture that is to come and deface the earth. Grandmothers and grandfathers continue to say that the end is near. There has been so much devastation throughout the world-ie-natural disasters, increased criminal activity, economic recession-that I can't help but to believe some of this to be true.

I said all of this to say that though I will still visit you ladies and remain (somewhat) active with commenting on your fabulous blogs, I will not be posting on a regular basis because I just need to get myself together. I don't want to obligate myself to this and not deliver so with that being said...I hope that you all will still continue to come through and visit every now and again. And I hope that you won't hold this against me.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Good Monday to all. I hope all of you enjoyed yet another great weekend. Mine was busy-full of work and packing, moving, and studying. However, with all that chaos being thrown in the mix, last week still proved to be an awesome couponing week for me.

For those of you who are new to visiting or following my blog, each Monday is

Savin' Maven Monday

I'm still fairly new-I've been actively couponing now for about 2 months-and I thought it would be neat to share my weekly savings with you all. So on Monday, I round up all of my purchases from the previous week and give totals and share how I saved on the listed items.

Since alot of my readers have been asking me exactly how I do this, I will start listing a specific 'couponing' tip each week. I will admit that I am no expert at this (yet) but I have gotten a helluva lot better since beginning in March. Couponing can sometimes be tedious so you have to stay tuned so as not to miss anything.

This week I shopped at 4 stores:

Savin' Maven (Walgreens)

If you have been keeping up with me, you know that I despise Walgreens but there's something that just pulls me back each and every week. Their customer service sucks, the associates are rude, and they hardly ever have advertised items in stock. I lucked up on this trip though because I went in on a Sunday evening while no one was shopping. I spent a total of $12.90 here. The blood glucose monitor was the highest priced item but I received $10 worth of Register Rewards for purchasing it so split my transactions up and I used that $10 reward to purchase the remainder of the items pictured. The Old Spice body washes were B1G1 50% and the candies were B1G1 FREE-all of which I had coupons for. The Pepsi was FREE with the purchase of chips and salsa and the Dole fruit crisp was also FREE after I used my coupon.

Next...CVS

Savin' Maven (CVS)

I had $10 worth of Extra Care Bucks that I needed to use by 5/17 so the rainchecks came in handy for these items that were out of stock on the previous week. Combined with the coupons that I had and the already looowww prices of these in-ad items, I spent a total of $.52-ALL TAX- for the stuff pictured above. What a steal!!

On to...Rite Aid

Savin' Maven (Rite Aid)

﻿My next step was Rite Aid. I always have great shopping trips at the 'Aid'. Annnnddd they always have killer sales! This past week I went in with $10 UP+ Rewards that I had earned from a previous purchase and a shit ton of coupons. The Sally Hansen and Rimmel cosmetics items were all B1G1 50% off. The detergent was $1.97 and the toothpaste was marked down to $1.09 for which I had 2 ($1 off 1) coupons so that made the toothpaste a whopping $.09. After coupons and discounts, I spent $1.59 here-ALL TAX!!

Lastly...Harris Teeter

Savin' Maven (Harris Teeter-Triple Coupon Day)

I don't normally do HT because their prices are SKY HIGH! Even if I were wealthy, I wouldn't shop here because it's just ridiculous! (I swear the rich people seethe with anger when they see my frugalicious self walk in the door). The only time that I do shop HT is when they are doing a double, or in this case, a triple coupon event. Usually they do these types of events once a month and since I am a family of 1 (I do sometimes feed the BF though) I am usually able to stock up on groceries and make this one trip last until the next 'grocery run'. During this coupon event at HT, they tripled all coupons up to $.98. You can only use 20 coupons per shopping trip per eVIC card. I spent $33.17 on this trip-the 5 12packs of soda that I purchased are not pictured because I didn't feel like taking them out of the car and hauling them up stairs but they were on an awesome special-B2G3 FREE.

Overall this week, my totals were $214.56

My total out of pocket was $48.18

For a total savings of $166.38 (78% savings)

What do you think?

Did you find any great deals this past week?

Wait...wait...wait...before you leave, let me give you

Couponing Tip #1:

Sign up for Company Reward or Loyalty Cards for each store that you frequent.

These cards are usually free and most times stores only offer sale prices to cardholders. You may sign up for these cards in store or on the specific company's website. Some of these cards work on the point system-for instance for every dollar you spend, you will earn a point-once you reach a certain number of points, they will send you a store coupon. Also, most of the loyalty cards (for pharmacy chains such as Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS) offer rewards that can be used just like money. All you have to do is purchase the advertised item and your receipt will print out with the stated reward amount that is good for you to use on your next purchase.

I know you're thinking damn it's already alot to tote around a bunch of coupons so where am I gonna put all of these loyalty cards. I assure you that they are easy to store-most of them can be attached to your key ring and along with advanced technology comes the KeyRing app where you can store all of your cards on your Smartphone for easy access.

Each Monday I will post a new tip. I will try to cover all that I can but please remember that I am no expert. If you have a specific question or topic that you want covered please leave it in the comments or shoot me a personal email. Thanks for reading!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Today is 'Bel Air' day. Teehee. Kristina fromPrettyShinySparkly is the absolute greatest. She has sponsored yet anotherBloggers Do It Better Challenge and this time we are to channel our inner Hillary Banks and find something preppy in our wardrobe.

Cords..Oxford..Belt-Thrifted/Cardi-NY&Co

She (Kristina) suggested neckties and button downs but I went a little more casual since we are having a pep rally at my job today. Blue oxfords, Cords, and Cardigans all seem so preppy to me.

Not only am I suuuppper happy that is it Friday....it's the Friday that I get to bitch and moan about my pet peeves as a blogger (special thanks go out to Katy from ModlyChic for deciding on this topic for this weeks' FBFF).

I will admit that after reading several entries of the FBFF topic-Pet Peeves, I started to become really self conscious about my blog-am I doing this right, am I not doing that right. However, I did see this as a great means of constructive criticism as well as a chance to alter some things on my blog so that it will be more appealing to my readers and followers. Without further ado, here are my peeves:

1. NOT COMMENTING BACK-Though all comments do not merit a detailed response, I think it's just common courtesy to contact your readers (by either emailing or commenting on one of their posts) just to let them know that their visits are in fact appreciated.

2. FOLLOW ME, I'LL FOLLOW YOU BACK-I hates this honey. I personally would rather you not even say anything at all versus saying that crap. When I follow someone, it is not a matter of favor. I follow people because they are fly and have awesome content that I enjoy reading, not solely because they are following me.

3. OFFENSIVE CONTENT-About two weeks ago, I was visiting a blog that I visit on the regular and one particular post was very offensive, disrespectful, and racist. I commented expressing my distaste and waited for an apology. Well....I never got an apology but I did go back to visit that blog to find that several others had left comments stating that they too were offended. The blogger never even had the decency to post an apology or reply back to any of our comments. Needless to say, I stopped following immediately. Though you can't please everyone, just be mindful of your readers' feelings.

4. TOO MANY PICS-I don't need to see a GAZILLION pics of you in the same 'fit doing different poses. You're doing too much!!

5. TROUBLE LEAVING COMMENTS-I've noticed on several blogs that I read that it will say 'Post A Comment' at the bottom of your post but when I go to click in the space, nothing happens. Maybe some of you have it set to where only followers can comment or maybe it may even be the computer that I'm using. Whatever it is, it's annoying. Hence the reason I subscribed to an outside commenting system (ie-Disqus, CommentLuv, IntenseDebate). You should try it too.

6. INCONSIDERATE BLOGGERS-I've contacted a plenty of bloggers about doing features of them on my blog. They say that they would love to be featured so I go through the trouble of emailing interview questions and then---NOTHING. Maybe she lost interest (she should've said that), maybe she doesn't have time (she should've never said she wanted to do it), or maybe she's just inconsiderate. Bloggers don't take on more than you can handle, be mindful of the things that you commit yourselves to, especially when it's at someone else's expense.

I'm sooooo excited to see what everyone else has to say. You can link up your peeves or just stop by to visit by clicking here.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

-I got to the bottom of my Capt. Crunch ceral box today....so I added Apple Jacks to it to make a full bowl! YUMMM!!!

-Why is it that some of the more popular bloggers don't participate in community -blog- events and challenges (ie-Bloggers Do It Better, Everybody Everywear)? Do they think that they are better than us or do they just not have the time to devote to networking with other bloggers!? I mean I'm curious as hell. Maybe when I reach 'superblog' status, I will comprehend that one a little better.

-I wore black with brown today and, well....let's just say that I won't do it again. I hates it honey! Have you ever rocked these two colors together? How did it turn out?

-I mentioned before how much I despise communal restrooms. But what I hate even more is the people who outright refuse to knock on the bathroom door before they pull on the door handle. Granted, I always lock the door behind me but just what if I forget one day....and then here comes one of those people who don't knock. I wonder if they will rethink their decision to knock after they walk in on someone mid-wipe!!

AWESOME

-If you're an avid Redboxer like me, they are offering some sweet deals for the next 7 days. Just text 'DEALS' to 727272. On Monday, they offered a FREE rental and Tuesday was half off . Today they are offering 50% off a one night rental. TEXT NOW!!

Redbox Deals

-If you're a follower, you know how much I looooveee thrifting. Weeellllll, I was featured on ColorBlind a couple of weeks ago as the 'Thrifters Anonymous Thrifter of the Week'. Shana hosts this segment once a week for all of us thrifters to share our finds. She's also super fly and frugalicious and I'm hoping to feature her for an upcoming 'Word on the Street Wednesday' segment. You can read my feature and visit Shana here.

-Ok, so I am waaayyyyy late on this Savin' Maven Monday roundup ...sorry to those of you who look forward to seeing my deals each week. Here are the awesome deals that I found last week.

Savin' Maven (Food Lion)

Food Lion was offering those huge bottles of salad dressing for $.99 and the Kellogg's cereals and Lays chips were all B1G1 FREE! Theeennn, Food Lion was giving out $5 off $25 coupons so I spent

$7.59 here.

Savin' Maven (Rite Aid #1)

This was the GREATEST trip ever!!! Rite Aid had awesome deals last week. The lotions, soaps, and deodorants were all B1G1 50% off. The cosmetics were B1G1 FREE and the pads and Tylenol Precise cream were all FREE after I used my coupons. I spent a total of

$15.16 on the 40 items pictured. That's
an average of $.38/item.

Savin' Maven (Rite Aid #2)

Rite Aid sales were so great that I made a second trip. This time I spent $4.96 (the 2 Reese cups are not pictured-I think I must've eaten them-ooops)! I also received $13 worth of Register Rewards to use towards my next Rite Aid trip. YAY!!

Savin' Maven (Target)

Target had lots of things on clearance last week-including some of their leftover spring gift bags and tissue papers. If you're lucky enough to have a decent Target in your area, you may be able to find some good markdowns. Here, I spent $5.65. Most of the items cost little or nothing after I used my coupons.

Savin' Maven (CVS)

My last stop was at CVS. I only stopped here because CoverGirl was offering a $3 extra care reward with the purchase of $10 worth of product. I spent $3.35 here after coupons.

So altogether last week, my items totaled $229.26
I spent $36.71 out of pocket (after coupons, discounts, and sales)

For a total savings of $192.55 (84% savings)

What can I say....shopping....(and couponing in particular) is addictive! I encourage you to try it!!!

What kind of awesome.....or awkward things did you experience this week?

First off, I loves me some cardigans. If I don't wear them (or some type of sweater, jacket, shawl covering, etc.) I feel utterly incomplete. Thus I have become completely obsessed with them.

Cardigan-NY & Co

There really is no right or wrong way to rock a cardi but I can admit that I was a little torn when it came to styling this NY & Co jewel. The flower detailing, regardless it's quiet color, is bold enough to speak for itself (I have it in army green as well). So as to not overpower the flowers, I added a solid, bold colored shirt. I figured patterns would have clashed too much and a light colored shirt just wouldn't have done the cardi justice.

The cream and brown statement necklace tied into the overall theme of the 'fit so I figured 'what the hell'!? When paired with brown slim flared NY & Co khakis and a pair of bronze Steve Madden kitten heels (my 'go to' shoe) I ended up with this:

How do you rock your cardi's?

In other 'Word on the Street Wednesday' news, my movie pick for the past week was Black Swan starring Nicole Kidman. I must admit that I was shamefully confused during alot of this movie. Maybe if I were to read the movie description and watch it over again I would better understand and appreciate the storyline.

A ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.

I had heard such great raves about it so I wanted to see for myself and I personally wouldn't give it a 10. I will, however, say that 'ole Natalie did a bangup job playing the part and I can definitely understand why she was awarded the infamous gold man....no wait...is it a man or is it a lady? It's name is Oscar, it has to be a man, right? Whomever IT is, it was very well deserved.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

First off, I love Vintage. I tend to find lots of these old vintage treasures while thrifting. The major thing that attracts me to vintage pieces is that they are timeless-they never go out of style because fashion, just like history, always repeats itself. Ohhhh how I wish that my mom would have saved all of her 70s dresses and midi skirts.

Another thing that I love about vintage is that it's unique-you will never see anyone with the exact same item as you. It's almost always boldly colored with a pattern or fabric that is not often seen in today's fashion.

There are some drawbacks though. Vintage garments are extremists!! They piss me off sometimes! Women definitely had some rather different body types back in the day as opposed to now and that's evident in the garments that I've come across. I always find the cutest things when I go thrifting but they're either waaayyyy too big or so small that it won't even fit my 10 year old cousin. So in walks the problem of styling vintage items.

How do you style vintage items that are too big

(or small for that matter)?

Most often I've found myself walking by and ignoring vintage pieces that I know won't fit. I stick strictly to those items that appear to be my size and I snatch them up without thinking twice. But I've found the following tidbits helpful with regard to purchasing and styling vintage pieces:

1. MIX AND MATCH DIFFERENT TIME PERIODS by pulling in modern basics (ie-cardigan, blazer, denim jacket, slacks) and accessories to update your look.

In other 'Word on the Street' news, I got to see a movie called The Next 3 Days starring (Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks) this past week. I absolutely loooovvveee strategic movies (ie-Ocean's Eleven, Italian Job) so this was like heaven for me. It's about a married couple whose life gets turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder. The husband devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. Very excellent flick!! I highly recommend it.

MY RATING-9.2/10

What's your 'Word on the Street' this week?

Any favorites?

(fashion trends, new bloggers, books, movies, events, etc)

SIDENOTE: Don't forget to enter my 'Spring Break Beauty' Giveaway. It contains lots of goodies. For details on how to enter click here. It ends NEXT MONDAY!!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Today marks a new installment of Everybody Everywear! For those of you who are unsure of what that is, it's a clothing collective where each month the curators, Liz and Linda, pick a classic piece of clothing for the participants to style. I love to see everyone's different styles and takes on such ordinary pieces.

This month we are rocking FLORALS. If you read my post here then you know how much I'm in looovvve with beautiful flowered fabrics. And with so many to choose from in my closet, it was kinda hard for me to decide which one to rock.

I ultimately went with this look:

(Psssstttt....this is also my Color Brigade look for the week. Click here to see what other colors the lovely ladies are rocking and don't forget to congratulate Kileen on her recent nuptuials).

SlacksShirtPeepToesBag-Thrifted/Belt-XXI

I added some pearls and a wide belt to add a classy edge to my cotton floral. I threw on my peep toe sandals and felt like a million bucks. I feel like I'm going to be rocking this same 'fit again in the near future!!

These great navy blue polyester pants were found in the men's section while out thrifting. I have mastered the art of predicting what will fit me just by looking at an item because I haaaatttteee going into the fitting room. However, since these pants were in the men's section and didn't have a size on the tag I broke down and went to the fitting room. They were a perfect fit. Price tag-99 cents!!!

This lovely cotton floral is a Mossimo branded thrift item as well...Price tag-99 cents!!! I love how I can dress it up or even pair it with some jeans and it still keeps it's sophisticated flair!

Ahhhh....now my favorite part! The shoes. In last Friday's post, I talked about shoes and how I'm in love with the Nine West brand because of their comfortability and style. Here's one of my latest additions:

An awesome cream colored peep toe heel with studded bows. Yet another thrift find. I watched the ladies seethe with anger as I quickly snatched these up and put them in my basket. Finders, keepers ladies.

Price tag-$2.98

I spent well under $30 on this 'fit but I feel like a MILLION BUCKS!!!

I can't wait to see what 'everybody, everywear' else is wearing. You can click here to see for yourself.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Good Monday my friends....I hope you all had a great and fantabulous Mother's Day weekend. You can read my post from yesterday to see how mine went.

Today is Mailbox Monday. I am sooo excited about it because I got ALL of this in the mail this past week:

Mailbox Monday

4 Magazines (2 Woman's Day, Black Enterprise, Jet) and some random product samples and coupons. I will be linking up with AFrugalFriend to share my mailbox goodies so go on over to see what everyone else got in their box. I also finally received the glasses that I ordered from CoastalContacts when they were doing their FREE giveaway. YAY!!! This was amazing for any of you all that got a chance to take advantage of it. Usually when websites do giveaways they offer to give you the least expensive item that they have available so as to not lose out on a bunch of money. Buuuttttt, CostalContacts was offering name brand glasses-FOR FREE. All you had to pay was shipping and a service fee which came out to $18.85-still not bad considering I got all of this:

$18.85 for a pair of BeBe glasses that were originally $128. That's an 85% savings and one helluva deal. They even came with a cool carrying case. Kudos to CoastalContacts.

FREE BeBe's from Coastal Contacts

They've done several of these giveaways within the past couple of months but I was only able to cash in on this one. Stay on the lookout for more of them (giveaways, that is).

Next on my agenda is Savin' Maven Monday. I don't feel as though I did much shopping this past week just because there weren't really any great deals out there. Here's my roundup...

My first stop was at Rite Aid. I spent $5.71 there and got this:

Savin' Maven Monday (Rite Aid)

﻿﻿

The Revlon and Covergirl Cosmetics were 40% off and I used a ($2.50 off 2) and coupon. The nail polishes were B1G1 50% off but I didn't have coupons for any of them. All of the candy was on a special 'after Easter' clearance so they were around $.25 each after the store coupons that I used. By making this purchase, I received $9 in Register Rewards to use toward my next purchase, a ($3 off $15 purchase) coupon, annnddd a coupon for 10% off. This trip actually made me alot of money that I can use next towards my next trip. Rite Aid is easily becoming one of my favorite places to shop. Sure some of their prices may be a little on the expensive side, but once you use your coupons and take advantage of their Register Rewards, you really don't end up spending much money at all. You can register for your own rewards card by clicking here.

My next stop was Farm Fresh. They double coupons up to $1 on Wednesdays so I always wait until then to visit. I spent $8.65 there and here's what I got:

Savin' Maven Monday (Farm Fresh)

The Dawn dish detergent is actually from CVS and I only spent $.10 for all 4 of them but that was the only trip I made there so I just tagged it on to my Farm Fresh trip. Nothing else too special about this trip other than the fact that the M&M's were FREE with the purchase of the Rice Krispies (I got the coupon from a peelies that was on the cereal box). I can't wait to make yummy Crab Salad with the Crab Classic that's pictured.

My next trip was to Wal-Mart. They rarely ever run specials so I just go in there in order to rid myself of some of the coupons that I have piling up. I spent $8.06 here and got the following:

Savin' Maven Monday (Wal-Mart)

This picture does not include the Miley Cyrus camo skinnies that I purchased for $3 but they are included in my total. The Ivory soaps were $.97 and I used 2 ($1 off 1) coupons so they ended up being FREE. Everything else was under $1.60.

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Pieces of Me...

I am a frugal Virginian who believes that your lifestyle should never be compromised for the sake of being fly. I love color and eclectic things. I love to shop. And even better, I love to thrift. I'm all about finding a deal-if it doesn't have a red tag or a coupon attached to it-I ain't buying it!!! This is a true expression of who I am.

Lifestyles of the Thrifty and Shameless is a personal lifestyle blog written, edited, and maintained by Miss Rockwell. For questions or concerns, please contact thriftyandshameless@gmail.com. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. However, if not compensated, I do and will accept and keep free products, services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations who are seeking promotion or reviews. I believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. I am not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics, therefore, the views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Thanks again for reading and I hope you've enjoyed your visit!